Former Bashara lawyer fined in contempt case

The former attorney for Grosse Pointe Park businessman Bob Bashara was ordered today to pay $8,000 in attorney and court fees after being found in civil contempt of court in 36th District Court in Detroit.

David Griem pleaded responsibility to the contempt charges in October to avoid being held in criminal contempt. The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office accused him of issuing a subpoena on a non-existent case and for giving discovering materials to Bashara’s family.

Griem did not comment to reporters after the sentencing.

Judge Kenneth King ordered Griem to pay $2,000 in fees to the prosecutor’s office, $4,000 to the court, and $2,000 to Susan Reed, the attorney for Joseph Gentz. He has 90 days to submit the payments. Reed is the attorney for Joseph Gentz, the former Bashara handyman who has been charged with the Jan. 24 murder of Jane Bashara.

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Griem admitted to sharing evidence Bashara’s solicitation to murder Gentz case with Bashara’s mother and other relatives, a direct violation of a discovery order issued by the court. He also issued an improper subpoena to a company to obtain employment records concerning Gentz.

Bob Bashara last month pleaded guilty to trying to arrange a hit on Gentz in jail. He admitted paying a furniture store owner to have someone kill Gentz to prevent him from testifying against Bashara about the strangulation of Jane Bashara.

Bob Bashara has not been charged in his wife’s death but Grosse Pointe Park police have publicly labeled him a person of interest. He is being held on a $15 million bond in Wayne County Jail pending a Dec. 10 sentencing on the solicitation charge.

Gentz, formerly of St. Clair Shores, is being held in the Dickerson Detention Facility in Hamtramck awaiting a Dec. 17 court hearing on the murder charge. He has told investigators that he killed Jane Bashara at her husband’s behest.